Commercial tree nurseries regularly employ one or other version of “standing baler” apparatus for folding and tying tree limbs for shipping and handling nursery stock. Such apparatus includes means for upwardly deflecting the limbs of a tree while simultaneously spirally tying the tree limbs in a compact bale.
One example is given in U.S. Pat. No. 4,939,989 (Zacharias), which discloses a tree limb folding apparatus which has a base adapted for mounting from an elevatable support (e.g. forklift). That tree limb folding and tying apparatus includes a generally annular horizontal frame operable to receive a lower trunk portion of the tree. The frame includes at least two peripherally adjacent arcuate frame sections which can be pivotally shifted relative to each other between closed and open positions. When open, there is defined a passageway between adjacent ends of the frame sections through which to receive the bole of a tree upon advancing the open frame toward the tree. Once the apparatus is horizontally engaged about a tree, it can be drawn upwardly, deflecting the limbs of the tree into a folded configuration, ready for tying.
A significant problem arises with standing tree balers that employ pivoting gates or arms to embrace the lower trunk of the tree and then to be drawn upward along the branches, as these mechanisms are vulnerable to distortion at and around the pivot.